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About this project

What you just saw was a scene from Season One we shot on a shoestring budget in order to show the style and tone of the series.

Why we are making it:

Biking Dawn is an over-the-top action/comedy series with heavy cinematic styling and romanticism all the while taking on real life issues. The series is a direct response to the issues that plague us today. Pollution, climate change, and unsafe roads are all caused in part by oil guzzling automobiles, poor leadership, lack of education and the flawed system that perpetuates them.

The comedy of the series is geared toward showing the absurdness and hypocrisy of crooked politicians, big oil CEO's and their lobbyists, and people who irrationally dislike anything bicycle related. In the story, our level headed bike riding heroes must deal with obstacles brought upon them by the ridiculousness of these people and groups.

Ultimately we aim to create a series with interesting characters and serious cinematic production value that can be enjoyed by anyone unfamiliar with the issues, thus bringing them into the discussion.

The Story:

At the beginning of Season One the story revolves around two rival bicycle gangs who have the same goal to have less automobiles and save the environment. Conflict arises as each group tries to accomplish their mission with opposing tactics.

One gang calls themselves the East-side Velo Alliance. They want all bicycles, automobiles and pedestrians to share the road equally and safely. Through education, outreach and advocacy they look to inform people about the positivity that can come from ditching their cars and having more bike friendly roadways.

The other gang is the Rocket City Rangers. They believe eliminating automobiles and the oil industry is the only way to save the planet. Their mission is to have a bike only world by any means necessary. Extreme problems require extreme solutions. They also seek to make the people responsible pay for what they have done to the ecosystem.

The bike-wrecked man in the promo scene plays the neutral character of the series. At the beginning of the story his only intent is to solve the mystery of why he has surgically implanted pedal clips in his feet.

Surrounding our heroes is the constant threat of corporate goons. These pesky foes will stop at nothing to quell the bicycle revolution and continue their reign of greed and poor decision making.

Character Focused:

Coinciding with presenting the issues, the main focus of the series is the development of the characters. Through the story we will show how the issues change the characters personally and the difficult obstacles they must overcome.

Four seasons of the story have been planned out with a lot of change coming to both gangs and major arcs for the main characters.

The goal of this Kickstarter campaign is to raise funds in order to produce and release the first season containing 10 three minute episodes. We introduce the main characters, their conflicts and set them off on their journey to save the world. Season One has been written, shot-listed and story-boarded and is in need of this campaign to move forward.

The timeline is to fund raise from now until Friday January 10th. We'll be making props and costumes through the winter and go into production once the weather gets nice in April 2014. From there we will go into post-production through the spring and then release ALL 10 episodes on July 4th, 2014.

Releasing it as a webseries is a fantastic way to keep total independence, artistic freedom and reach the widest possible audience.

After analyzing everything, negotiating rates, and getting many favors we have gotten the budget down to $27,000. This is the number that enables us to have the professional production value that is imperative to this project. This will allow us to film, edit and release the first season and get you a bunch of awesome rewards:

Surpassing our fundraising goal is totally possible. If that does happen the additional funding will go toward more stunt work, art design, visual effects and making your backer rewards even better!

Every dollar helps the project immensely. Even if you are in a pinch and cannot donate today we would love it for you to send the campaign link to a friend who would be interested in the series.

With a successful campaign, not only will you get to see an entertaining new series but you will also receive awesome rewards for backing this project including Backer Exclusive DVD's and Blu-Rays, signed storyboards, skype sessions with the creators, NYC bike ride with the director and producer and more! For a full list of all the rewards check out the rewards column on the right of the page.

The vast majority of the other bicycle videos online are documentaries and style/showcase pieces displaying riders, gear, races and tricks. A lot of great artists and cyclists are making beautiful pieces and we urge you to support and seek them out as well.

Biking Dawn is a character driven narrative told in a highly cinematic style. Currently there is nothing else like this being done in the world which takes on these issues. In a market dominated by superheros battling fantastical nemeses, we aim to take on real world bad guys who create real world problems.

Dan has worked on a variety of different film/tv projects all while writing and developing his own scripts. He has been developing Biking Dawn for the last four years and is incredibly excited to start filming and share it with everyone. He loves practical effects, stunts, and the horror, sci-fi and comedy genres.

Risks and challenges

Whether it be scheduling conflicts, sick actors, faulty equipment or hard drive crashes, there is always a never ending list of risks and challenges during the production of a film. Biking Dawn's thought provoking ideas while being critical to two of the biggest industries in the world may generate a couple more.

Whatever risks may come, we are wholeheartedly committed in bringing you an interesting and relevant series that brings up important issues with characters you can connect and care about.

FAQ

Rewards

$1 reward

2 backers

Every dollar counts! Now you'll have a great feeling that you helped make Biking Dawn a reality.

Estimated delivery:Jan 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

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$5 reward

10 backers

Welcome to the Biking Dawn Alliance! You will get your name in the special THANK YOU section of the FB page, website and credits AND receive updates of the production process and release of the First Season.

Estimated delivery:Jan 2014

You selected

$10 reward

2 backers

You will get your name in the special thank you section of the FB page, website and credits, receive updates of the production process and release of the First Season, AND receive a hand written thank you letter from the crew.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

You selected

$25 reward

13 backers

You will get your name in Thank You page/credits, updates AND a Season One DVD with exclusive behind the scenes content, storyboards, concept art, bloopers, commentaries, and more.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

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You selected

$50 reward

11 backers

You will get your name in Thank You page/credits, updates, DVD, AND a signed Season One Blu-Ray AND a specially designed Biking Dawn sticker AND laminated spoke card for your bike

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

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$100 reward

2 backers

You will get your name in Thank You page/credits, updates, DVD, signed Blu-Ray, sticker, spoke card AND a Skype or phone call session with the Director and Producer (other cast and crew may attend as well), AND a signed and framed storyboard of a scene of your choice.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

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You selected

$250 reward

2 backers

You will get your name in Thank You page/credits, updates, DVD, signed Blu-Ray, sticker, spoke card, skype/phone session, signed storyboard AND an invite to come onto set to be an extra PLUS an invite to the premiere party in NYC.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

You selected

$500 reward

0 backers

You will get your name in Thank You page/credits, updates, DVD, signed Blu-Ray, sticker, spoke card, skype/phone session, signed storyboard, be an extra, invite to premiere party AND a bike ride through NYC accompanied with the Director and Producer where we can discuss whatever you'd like while we ride around exploring the city. AND THEN after the ride the Director will cook you a healthy dinner at his apartment (other cast and crew may attend as well, Bicycle and helmet will be provided for your ride. If unable to ride a bike we can chill and get coffee/tea/water/milk instead or if overseas/very far we can have an extra long Skype session. For the dinner, we'll be in contact to be on point with any food allergies or dietary restrictions).

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

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You selected

$1,000 reward

0 backers

You will get your name in Thank You page/credits, updates, DVD, signed Blu-Ray, sticker, spoke card, skype/phone session, signed storyboard, invite to premiere party, bike ride and home made dinner with Director AND be a featured extra where you would get a line of dialog AND get Associate Producer credit.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

Funding period

Dec 3, 2013 - Jan 10, 2014
(38 days)

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